The Search for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
by iLuvElectronics
Summary: Arlene is just a high school girl in love with a certain Mutt. When a group of terrorists looking for money find out she knows everything about the Hanging Gardens, they follow her and the Jones's all the way to Baghdad on a fast-paced adventure. MuttXOC
1. Chapter 1: Arlene

_**NOTE: 50s slang will be used in this story occasionally, so if you don't understand something, you can look at my source: ' /fashion/slang.htm '. **_

"Now let's move on to our next topic: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Gardens are the only unproven previous Wonder of the World, a mystery to all of us. Let's see...Arlene. Tell me something about them." Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr. said, pacing back and forth in front of his chalkboard.

"Well, sir, the Hanging Gardens were supposedly made by King Nebuchadnezzar II to please his current wife, Amytis of Media. They were filled with exotic animals, terraces, and beautiful monuments." Arlene said. She had always been interested in this subject, so she was basically an expert on it.

"Very good. Now, Henry, tell me something else." he said, smiling approvingly at his student, and then staring solemnly at a half-asleep Mutt.

"It's Mutt." he said angrily, putting his head up and propping it up on his arm boredly. "And I don't know a thing about those Hanging Gardens."

"Study up. Next time you say that you get detention." Dr. Jones said, and then moved on to another student. Arlene blushed, thinking about Mutt. She had been crushing on him for two years now, but never did a thing about it.

--

After school, Arlene and her best friend Jean were walking over to the diner. "No! I can't do it!"

"Yes you can, Arlene! I know you can! You're going to spend the rest of high school crushing on a guy you never even really talked to if you don't!" Jean said.

Arlene stayed silent, comtemplating things in her head, until finally she said, "Alright! I'll do it! I'll go talk to him!"

"Good girl!" Jean said. By this time the two had succeeded in sitting at an empty table, but not for long, because gunshots started whistling through the diner, cutting up all the windows and sending Jean and Arlene flying to the ground. They both winced in pain as a few glass shards found their way into the two girls' skin.

"Quick! Get under the table!" Arlene yelled, trying to ignore the pain and grabbing Jean's arm as she crawled under it. After a while, the gunfire ceased and a few sighs of relief were heard throughout the diner. Someone was heard talking outside. Arlene could recognize that voice anywhere.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Listen, before you bad news just decide to go ape and blow everything up! Cool it, alright! Don't just go around cruisin' for a bruisin'!" Mutt said loudly, smiling as he watched the shooters look at each other, confused. Apparently, they spoke English, but didn't know any slang. "Now everyone...GET OUT OF THE DINER!!" he continued, very loudly, and ran over to his motorcycle and people started flooding out of the building. Arlene and Jean followed everyone out as the gunfire started up again. It had taken a moment for the shooters to realize that they had been tricked.

Consumed in fear and confusion, Arlene pretty much forgot about Jean. They had run off in different directions after exiting, and before she knew it, Arlene was on the back of Mutt's motorcycle, speeding off. As the gunfire all turned towards the two on the motorcycle, it was clear who they were after. "...I'm so sorry...I should've stayed back there..." Arlene said guility.

"It's alright, babe. It's not just you they're after, it's me too. They want to know where my dad is so they can get more information off of him, too." Mutt replied, quite out of breath as he dodged a whole bunch of cars, going twice as fast as them down the street. Arlene was quite confused.

"Information on...what?" she asked, looking back to see that they were following in cars.

"Look back at today's History lesson." Mutt replied blankly as they approached the house. "We've gotta hurry. They'll be here really soon." Arlene rather reluctantly unweaved her arms from around Mutt's waist as he stopped his motorcycle and got off it, immediately running into his house, which was quite wrecked. "MOM!!" he yelled, running throughout the house. "MOM!! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Arlene followed him upstairs, where he found Marion hidden in the closet. "Mom! We've gotta go, now! They're coming!" he said frantically, helping her up.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're safe, Henry!" Marion said, hugging her annoyed son tightly before he started running down the stairs again.

"It's MUTT, for the second time today!! Gosh, do you people not know how to say a person's name correctly?" Mutt yelled, annoyed, as they exited the house. "Take the car, Mom. We can't all fit on my bike."

"Righto, sonny!" Marion said, grabbing the keys from her pocket as she ran towards the car.

"Mom, don't ever say that again." Mutt said, riling up his engine as Arlene got on back again. Marion just smiled. She and Indy always had comic relief, even at times like these. "Follow me!" He sped off, and the car followed. The shooters were right behind them. Mutt slowed down to be at the same place as the car, and yelled, "Where's Dad?"

"On his way to Baghdad! He knew they were coming, so he left right after school!" Marion yelled out the window of the car, careful not to let the followers hear her.

"God, why does he have to get himself into these type of things all the time?" Mutt said quietly to himself as he sped up again. "Anyways, if he's off to Baghdad, we are too. I hope you don't mind, but if you stay here it'll be really dangerous."

"My parents will have a cow, but okay!" Arlene said excitedly, clinging a little more tightly than needed onto Mutt's back. _'This will be like a vacation with the guy of my dreams...'_ she thought happily, for a moment forgetting they were being followed by major gunfire.

"Umm...I can't breathe here..." Mutt said after a few moments. Arlene blushed furiously and lightened her grip a bit.

"Sorry..."


	2. Chapter 2: Wayne and Gloria

_**Okay, the beginning of this chapter may be a little hard to understand because it's a chase scene and was really hard to write, but just reread a few times and if you still don't understand tell me in your review and I'll try to explain it to you. I tried my best though!**_

"So...exactly how are we going to get to Iraq?" Mutt asked as they sped down the road.

"We've got to find a plane to get there on." Marion replied.

"Umm...and how are we supposed to just...find a plane?"

"How Indy did." Marion said, smiling, even though she had no idea where her husband could've found a plane.

"I have a family friend a little while down this road who owns a jet that I'm pretty sure we could all fit in." Arlene piped up, happy she could finally do something useful.

"Well that's a lot more convenient. We just have to loose these guys." Marion thought for a moment, looking around the car. She spotted something and smiled. "Arlene, do you know how to drive a motorcycle?"

"No...why?"

"Well, you're going to have to learn!" Marion tossed her son a rapier she had found in the back of the car from their last adventure. Mutt was on the same mind track as soon as he saw the rapier, so he slowed down to jumping length from his motorcycle to the criminals' car.

"Mutt, no!" Arlene said worriedly, then realized she had revealed a little too much in her statement, and stayed quiet.

"Don't worry, babe. I've done this before." Mutt said, literally standing up on his motorcycle and jumping onto the other car. He started stabbing the front windows so much that they shattered onto the driver and passenger, causing the car to slow down and start skidding. He quickly jumped to the other car right before it was too late, but staggered immediately and grabbed his arm. Arlene gasped as she looked back, seeing blood trickling down from under Mutt's hand.

"Be careful, Mutt! If you get shot one more time I'm going to be the one to finish you off!" Marion scolded, although worried.

"I just got shot, and you're blaming me?!" Mutt yelled back, but then regained his composture and yelled to Arlene. "Ready?" Without waiting for an answer, he broke the front windows of the car he was now on, which caused the same effect as last time, and took a giant leap towards Arlene. She gasped and quickly braked, realizing what she was supposed to do. She had never even dreamed of being on an adventure like this before, so it took her a little while, but just in time for Mutt to almost land on top of her, and then flip forward on the bike and almost fall off. Now he simply had his entire body wrapped around the handlebars, about to fall off.

"Mutt!" Arlene yelled in fear, forgetting about driving for a moment and helping him into the proper position in front of her. Mutt just barely saved the bike from skidding entirely off the road and killing them.

"Learn how to drive, would you?" he said, breathing a sigh of relief. "You're lucky I've been driving this thing for years!"

"Sorry..." Arlene said quietly, blushing. She was too worried about not letting Mutt die to worry about causing both of them to die.

"Sorry, I lost my temper there. It's just that you could've died. I would rather it only be me than both of us." Arlene's blush deepened.

Marion beamed devilishly out of the car window, and then said, "You know, we can slow down now. Those guys are all the way back there. They can't drive with those shattered windows." Both vehicles slowed speed by a lot, since they had been going so fast from the chase. Arlene noticed Mutt gritting his teeth in pain as they kept going.

"Are you okay?" she asked, remembering that he had been shot in the arm.

"Yeah, I just need to get this covered quick before I loose too much blood." Mutt replied. Arlene tore a little bit from her skirt, with quite a bit of difficulty, and helped Mutt get his jacket off while driving. She rolled up his sleeve and tied up the bloody bullethole with the piece of fabric from her shirt. "Thanks." Mutt said as they approached a house.

"That's his house. Pull into that driveway." Arlene said, pointing at the big clearing of sand and dirt in front of the rather worn-down house.

"Are you sure this is a driveway?" Mutt asked, parking next to the car and getting off of his motorcycle.

"Yes..." Arlene replied. Her family friend was a little...well...you get the point. She walked up to the house and knocked on the door. Heavy footsteps were heard, and a large man with greying hair, a bandanna, and barely any teeth opened the door.

"Oh, Arlene! It's nice to see you! You haven't visited in years!" he exclaimed. He had a loud, gruff, smoker's voice.

"Umm...yes...it's nice to see you too..." Arlene said.

"Who are your friends? Oh, and where are my manners? I'm Wayne! Nice to meet you all!"

"I'm Marion. This is my son Henry, you can call him Mutt, though." Marion said, fake-smiling and shaking his hand. After a death glare from her son, she added, "In fact, I recommend it."

"Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you! Come inside, please, and have some coffee!" Wayne said, stepping back inside, to the kitchen, and preparing some cups of coffee. It was already made, for himself. Arlene, Mutt, and Marion reluctantly followed him inside, but after seeing the dirty, moth-eaten couch, decided it was best to stay standing.

"Umm...actually, Mr. Donald, I think we'll be fine without coffee, thank you. We're just here because we'd like to borrow your plane." Arlene said.

"Wayne! Not Donald! Wayne!" Wayne said angirly, taking his cup of coffee and sitting on the couch. "And are you sure about not wanting coffee? Today's packet was one week less old than usual!"

"We're sure." the three quickly said in unison. Marion now regretted shaking Wayne's hand.

"Alright, alright! Now what do you want my dear old Gloria for?"

"He named his plane Gloria?" Mutt whispered, holding in laughs. Arlene simply nudged him sharply.

"We're umm...on a vacation." Arlene said.

"Where to?"

"Baghdad..."

"Baghdad? Well that's going to be an interesting vacation! Anyways, go ahead and take her, just make sure to take good care of her and bring her back within a few months!"

"Thank you, Wayne. We'll be going now." Arlene said, happy to leave the house.

"You're welcome!" Wayne said as the three started to leave. "Are you sure you don't want some coffee?"

They ignored him and started coughing as they staggered outside. "WHAT was that smell?!" Mutt exclaimed.

"Umm...Wayne doesn't exactly have plumbing, if you know what I mean..." Arlene said. The other two gagged.

"Is that guy senile?!"

"Kind of, yeah." Arlene said, leading them to the backyard, where the jet was. "Should I pilot? My mom made me have Wayne teach me a few years ago."

"No, it's alright. I know how to pilot jets. You two should have some time together in the back." Marion said, smiling again.

Arlene blushed furiously. "Mom!" Mutt said sternly, although his face was red too. Marion just laughed as they piled into the jet.

"Alright, you had better take your bathroom break now, because this is going to be a long flight, and we're not going to stop very much."

"I'm not going to pee in a bush!" Mutt said, causing both of the others to laugh. "I just hope this guy doesn't take dumps in 'Gloria', too."


	3. Author's Note

_**I'm having problems writing this story, so this isn't actually a chapter. avoids tomatoes I'm really just having problems coming up with things to write, so I'm not going to do this story anymore. avoids whole bucketfuls of tomatoes I'm sorry to all of you who loved this story, but it's just not my type of story, I don't know why, but if you like my writing please check out my other story, soon to be stories (I'm writing a new one). Bye! runs offstage so that she doesn't get soaked in any more tomato juice than she already is**_


End file.
